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有名人 / Yuumeijin / Celebrity

Author: NANAO NanakiGenre: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, ShounenPublisher: ShogakukanSynopsis: The Demon King has been defeated and now the Demon World is running a competition to choose a successor. A muscular, high-level human named Helck has joined the competition claiming that he wishes to destroy all humans. Is he serious?

Red Vamirio, one of the Four Heavenly Kings of the entire Demon Empire, is monitoring the competition and cannot trust him. What's the secret behind Helck, and the Human World? (Summary provided via Baka-Updates.)

I've enjoyed the series immensely thus far. The storytelling is superb, the artwork is acceptable, and the comedy ain't too bad. Plus, the deconstruction surrounding several jRPG mechanics and tropes, especially when seen from the demons' point of view, adds a unique spice to the story's appeal.

Kudos to Rello for making this series known to Western audiences! Can be read here.

中級員 / Chuukyuuin / Member

The manga gets much better after the few first chapters. What I like most about the manga is its straightforward storytelling. Having a diverse array of characters helps too.

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Well, this actually is one of the best manga I've read in a while. I got caught up today.

This went from my laughing almost to the point of tears to actual tears because of the feels. And judging by the comments section, I need to get a refund from the onion ninja net people who were supposed to prevent those chopped onion fumes from causing me to tear up like that.

It's definitely got a good story, and the plot twists are very well done. Plus it makes a lot of references to other manga, and even took a poke at Hiatus X Hiatus. Long range telepathic manga story telling...

有名人 / Yuumeijin / Celebrity

Picked this up from a recommendation and it's a lot better than I expected. I normally don't like the whole 'humans are the enemy' deal because it's generally just some guy saying 'humans are badddddd' that tries to some sophisticated. While the conflict is still the generic evil conspiracy thing, I understand in the setting where the demons are really the good guys you got to have some monolithic evil elsewhere or there wouldn't even be a source of conflict.

Azudora and Vamirio are really great at handling the concept of conviction needs to be backed up by power. Way too many manga confuse the difference between 'might makes right' and daydreaming. You can't just have great dreams and ideals while having absolutely no power to back it up because you expect the author to bail you out of impossible odds. This doesn't mean the dreamer needs to be the strongest character in the story but there should be a reason to believe that the dreamer can do more than just read fancy slogans. Both Azudora and Vamirio have big dreams and they have the mental and physical power to back up those dreams so that they can come true.

有名人 / Yuumeijin / Celebrity

Picked this up from a recommendation and it's a lot better than I expected. I normally don't like the whole 'humans are the enemy' deal because it's generally just some guy saying 'humans are badddddd' that tries to some sophisticated. While the conflict is still the generic evil conspiracy thing, I understand in the setting where the demons are really the good guys you got to have some monolithic evil elsewhere or there wouldn't even be a source of conflict.

Azudora and Vamirio are really great at handling the concept of conviction needs to be backed up by power. Way too many manga confuse the difference between 'might makes right' and daydreaming. You can't just have great dreams and ideals while having absolutely no power to back it up because you expect the author to bail you out of impossible odds. This doesn't mean the dreamer needs to be the strongest character in the story but there should be a reason to believe that the dreamer can do more than just read fancy slogans. Both Azudora and Vamirio have big dreams and they have the mental and physical power to back up those dreams so that they can come true.

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It's possible the author is heading to what you suggest. There's something apparently very, very scary to the north of the Demon Empire where the bulk of their military is stationed. The human threat isn't so bad yet that it warrants the two Heavenly Kings we have yet to see combine their powers with Azudora and Vamirio just to finish the awakened humans. One of the things I like about Helck is that you feel a huge world exists with all the variety of demihumans, demons, etc. we've been introduced to. On top of that, elements like the mysterious ruins and other tribes suffering strange mutations were introduced early on in the series. So there's still plenty of material for the author to use and elaborate upon, meaning there's more to the story than just the demon-human conflict we've been dealing with for the past 70+ chapters, which is good in my opinion.

Going off what you mention too about conviction, it's good to see Helck avoids cliches like people converting to the heroes' cause for no reason (e.g. Naruto). Helck is hardly original, yet the execution of the storytelling is superb. Someone like Mikaros isn't going to magically renounce everything he's done thus far. He's a major threat to both demons and humans alike and it's intelligent for the author to have people like Azudora attempt to kill Mikaros for the legitimate threat he is.

有名人 / Yuumeijin / Celebrity

The draw for this manga and other mangas that I've read is the depth of the cultural awareness and level of humanity. It's not a mindless mentality of two forces clashing i.e. humans v. demons. I appreciate how the author is creating this in that the demons, who are usually monstrified and villanized, are presented as civil, sentient and have a certain depth of humanity. The demons seems seems to have a much greater awareness but the humans are only concerned with the threat that the "evil" demons represent.

I know the story only features two races, humans and demons, but this could carry easily over into the real world. That's why I appreciate mangas such as Helck. Who is willing to bridge different races rather than monstrify another race? Once another race is monstrified, it's easy to justify evil against such a race.

有名人 / Yuumeijin / Celebrity

Helck isn't some kind of an attempt to understand the other side or whatever. The demons are flat out the good guys in the world of Helck, and the humans live in mortal fear of the impossibly powerful demon race. Outside of the ultra pacifist Azudora (who didn't start out that way either), the Demon Empire is mostly friendly but don't particularly have a high opinion of humanity. It's difficult to coexist with another race when you know they got guys that can single handedly destroy your civilization for good if they feel like it. What humans thought is the most powerful demon turns out to be something that possibly can be instant killed by Vamirio (Demon Kings seem to be around level 50-60 range, Vamirio can definitely take out a new world monstrosity in one hit and those are at least level 50).

The demons do a good job handling the power and responsibility for being the most powerful race in the world of Helck, and unlike most manga where century old grudges don't matter if you just believe in whatever, we can see that Azudora is aware that old grudges are hard to get past. If Vamirio isn't around, the story would likely end with the complete annihilation of humanity. It's because Vamirio is both powerful and compassionate that the demons can afford to try to save humanity, because even if it turns out that there was no way to save humanity after all, Vamirio is strong enough to ensure the safety of the demon race.

有名人 / Yuumeijin / Celebrity

There have been a lot of developments and while it seems the manga is winding down with the death of the Human King, I'm still of the opinion we're being set up for something grander. There are still enemies like the Northern adversaries who've been hyped and the Will of the World itself to deal with. Having a chance to finally catch up on everything, I'm really like the progression and writing of the manga.